The southern anchorage of Dor has served as a port facility for at least four millennia. The anchorage is protected from the west by a submerged kurkar ridge, from the north by a tombolo and from the southwest by a small island. The lagoon is a natural feature, which has preserved the remains of shipwrecks and associated finds as they were buried under the sand soon after wreckage. In 1968, a cargo consisting of an iron cannon, mortar bombs, muskets and anchors was discovered in the lagoon. The (AURI) performed a documented underwater survey, led by J. Galili. Some years later, a bronze cannon, a bronze mortar and various kinds of weapons were recovered by the MAU. The weapons probably belonged to Napoleon’s army, which retreated after their unsuccessful siege of Acre, and marched southward along the coast through Dor.  

The MAU began its activities at Dor in the early 1970’s, and has since carried out extensive surveys in the Dor region.  In the early 1990’s, K. Raveh and S. Kingsley performed a number of underwater surveys in the southern bay. Among the finds were stone, lead and iron anchors, numerous remnants of vessels and cargoes, and a hull section of a Byzantine shipwreck containing decorated storage jars and traces of ropes. A Greek helmet and a Byzantine steelyard bearing a Greek inscription were also recovered. Between 1994 and 1998, the CMS together with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA), studied several shipwrecks inside the lagoon.

 A ship’s hull that was constructed without the use of mortise and tennon joinery was excavated and dated to the waning years of Byzantine rule in the region. Thus the so-called Tantura A wreck is the oldest recorded hull in the Mediterranean to have been built without the use of mortise and tennon joints. Another hull, lacking cargo, was recovered and radiocarbon dated to about the eighth century AD. In 1999 the MAB and the CMS excavated a wreck dated to the Ottoman period. More than two-thirds of the hull survived, including the mast step. Finds included mat baskets, ropes, textiles, oil lamps and decorated pottery pipes. Ashlar kurkar stones and a Roman marble capital were used as ballast stones. A few meters west of the 17^th century Ottoman wreck, another almost complete hull of a 20^th century vessel was exposed. The wreck was excavated in 2000 by the CMS and the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) and contained mainly ashlar building stones.

The archaeological evidence indicates that extensive marine activities must have taken place at Dor’s southern anchorage, beginning in the MB, and have continued ever since. Some of the ships were probably wrecked while anchoring in the lagoon, as it provided little shelter during heavy winter storms.